This invention concerns a scalp treatment shown to decrease average daily hair loss in a number of people in statistically significant tests. An overall decrease of 21 percent of average daily hair loss has been shown after two months of treatment of a test panel. Average daily hair loss decreased for over 75 percent of the panelists. Statistically, there is a more than 90 percent confidence level that a decrease in average daily hair loss occurred in the test group as a whole.
There is no present evidence that the technique stimulates hair growth, and no tests for this effect have been made. No claims are made that this treatment affects "male pattern" baldness, and no tests have been made for such an effect. No tests have been conducted for abnormal hair conditions.
The whole topic of hair growth connotes elements of folklore, superstition, and even "quackery." Still a large number of valid scientific studies on hair growth or hair loss exist.
Falling hair has been approached in many different ways throughout history. Records from Egyptian tombs relate cures for baldness dating from the Bronze Age. Fats of the snake, hippopotamus, and other animals were regarded as topical treatments for hair loss. Since that remote period, little has changed until recently.
Modern approaches to the problem of hair loss have stressed several possible avenues of treatment.
The nutrient/microcirculation approach centers on supplying alleged nutritional factors or oxygen that the hair follicles may be lacking. No research to date has given evidence to support the concept that hair follicles senesce and fall in response to a vital nutrient or oxygen which becomes limiting. Similarly, treatment of falling hair by supplying nutrients has not been shown to have any effect.
A second approach has stressed "unplugging" of the hair follicle. This view suggests that the hair follicle is "strangled" by buildup of sebaceous secretions in the pilary canal. Treatment of this imaginary microscopic strangulation with products containing polyoxyethylene sorbitan fatty acid esters, such as polysorbate-60 or polysorbate-80, has gained some underground popularity, but again there is no scientific evidence of benefit.
Interest in hair loss and in hair growth has recently been rekindled by the promise of topically applied drugs (minoxidil, diazoxide, or viprostal, for example) which in some cases support hair regrowth in balding persons. The mechanism of actions of these drugs is not known and their safety and effectiveness are under study.
Human hair grows in cyclic fashion with each of the individual hair follicles responding independently to the physiological condition of the person. At any given time some 85 to 90 percent of the human scalp hair follicles are in the active stage of growth known as "anagen." This anagen state is characterized by active production of cells which keratinize to form the growing hair shaft. The growth of any individual hair follicle may proceed continuously for a variable period of up to six years. For reasons which are not fully understood, the anagen follicle passes into a state of metabolic quiescence (catagen) and then into a state of senesence (telogen) characterized by deterioration of the bulb and eventual loss of the structure, including the hair shaft. Under normal conditions the "germ" of the new anagen bulb is left behind by the extruded follicle so that a new bulb will differentiate and grow at virtually the same location as its predecessor.
When the cyclic nature of this process becomes unbalanced, that is, when generation of new anagen bulbs is retarded with respect to the entry of bulbs into catagen and telogen states, hair loss occurs. Balding, therefore, is the result of many cycles of hair growth out of balance, which is characterized by gradual diminution of the number of anagen bulbs over successive cycles. It is reasonable to assume that if hair follicles can be maintained in the active anagen state for a longer period, there will be less hair loss as follicles pass to the catagen and telogen states. The fewer bulbs lost in the normal progression of hair follicles or senescence, the fewer new bulbs need to take their place.
It is therefore desirable to provide a treatment which modulates the normal rate of conversion of active anagen bulbs to quiescent or senescent ones. It is desirable that such a treatment decrease the rate of shedding of hair. It is desirable that such a treatment maintain the anagen phase of bulb activity. It is desirable that such a treatment employ inexpensive, harmless materials and be performed by individuals without professional assistance.